Create quarterly milestones and goals
Social media is a long-term process, but firms can’t sit back and measure nothing. And while organizations won’t experience full adoption the week a program launches, there are ways to track progress over time. For example, look to see if adoption and activity is better than it was in the first three and six months. Did adoption increase or decrease? Are employees sharing more on a consistent basis than they once did? Then, a few months after launch, begin tracking marketing metrics like traffic from social and increased company page follows. By looking at these metrics over time, you’ll easily be able to gauge if your social media efforts are resonating with your team.
Look for ways to encourage incremental improvements
We’ve found that when launching a new initiative or program, employees usually fall into three buckets:
- High motivation & engagement: “Help me be excellent.”
- Moderate motivation & engagement: “Make it easier.
- Low motivation & engagement: “Show me why I should care.
While you likely won’t get an employee to move from the bottom tier to the top tier overnight, you can encourage them to get 1% better each and every day. For example, help the people who are consistently active with new, helpful content and data. Those who fall more in the middle may just need help building momentum. Map and plan your ongoing enablement efforts around these tiers and develop appropriate strategies for each.
Lead by example
Finally, financial services leaders who consistently engage on social media are much more knowledgeable and credible when they ask their client-facing employees to leverage social media. Instead of telling them what to do and how to do it, show them how you embrace social media yourself.
